


Don’t Need Your Love

by baekonandeggs



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Boy Band, Alternate Universe - Famous, Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Enemies to Lovers, Exes, Exes to Lovers, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Happy Ending, High School, LGBT, Light Angst, Love, M/M, Music, Na Jaemin-centric, Not Canon Compliant, Sweet Lee Jeno, no beta we just die
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-20
Updated: 2021-02-20
Packaged: 2021-03-17 09:55:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,378
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29591034
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/baekonandeggs/pseuds/baekonandeggs
Summary: “I regret loving you as much as I regret losing you.”Jaemin and Jeno were once the golden couple of their school. Until they weren’t. 3 years later, Jeno appears in Jaemin’s life again, this time a member of DREAM, an up and coming band.(WILL START UPDATING WHEN PROMISE FINISHES)
Relationships: Huang Ren Jun/Liu Yang Yang, Lee Donghyuck | Haechan/Mark Lee, Lee Jeno/Na Jaemin
Comments: 2
Kudos: 15





	Don’t Need Your Love

“Did you hear?” Donghyuck bounded up to his friends, who were sprawled on the couch of Renjun’s living room. “What?” Renjun asked lazily, curled up across the pale beige sofa, head in Jaemin’s lap. Donghyuck sighed happily, flopping over onto an equally pale beige chair, throwing his legs over one of the armrests. “You know the band Dream right?”

“How could I not? You talk about them all. The. Fucking. Time,” Jaemin emphasized each word. 

Everyone in their highschool was borderline obsessed with the up and coming band. Jaemin on the other hand, prefered to avoid conversation concerning them. He hadn’t seen any of them since his freshman year of highschool- and he wished to keep it that way. Preferably forever. But he figured the universe must hate him, because Donhyuck’s next words were “AND GUESS WHAT?! THEY’RE GONNA BE ATTENDING OUR HIGHSCHOOL FOR THEIR SENIOR YEAR!” The boy was screeching in excitement, not quite noticing Jaemin’s pale face or Renjun’s sympathetic one. 

The two had transferred highschools (and cities) in their Sophomore year, (after Jeno left. Jaemin’s life only had two parts now; Before Jeno, and After Jeno.) They had met Hyuck at their new, and current school, Seoul Specialized Arts.  _ Hyuck didn’t know their history with Dream _ . And he didn’t need to. Some things, Jaemin figured, were better off buried in the past. 

“It’s a quarter of the way through the year already.”

“SO WHAT? IT’S A MIRACLE!”

“It’s… great,” Jaemin hesitantly ventured. It was a lie.  _ But nobody needed to know that.  _

“I KNOW,” Hyuck screeched again, and Jaemin had to smile. Donghyuck always managed to cheer up the room. “I’M SO EXCITED!”

Then he paused and frowned. “I also never finished my math homework. So I’ve gotta go now, byeee!” He slid off the chair, grabbing his bag and running through the modern white door. It was such a Donghyuck thing to do, and he had done it many times in the past. Enough times that Jaemin had gotten used to it. 

Neither Renjun nor Jaemin said anything for a while. They just sat there in silence, Jaemin’s fingers combing through Renjun’s soft brown hair. It was a habit by now for both of them. 

“So.”

Jaemin’s eyes fluttered closed, his head sinking into the couch cushion behind him. 

“So what now?” Jaemin murmured.

“Well, what are you going to do?”

“Nothing.”

“You’re just going to ignore him for the rest of the year?”

“Exactly. See? You get it.”

“We both know you don’t mean that.”

“Shhh. Let me believe what I want to believe, Injunnie.”

“Fine.”

They were both quiet for a second, a somber mood settling over them, before Jaemin voiced his question. “Did you ever get over him?”

Renjun laughed, the sound aimlessly echoing through the house. “No, no I don’t think so.”

“What are you going to do then?”

“I don’t know. I really just- I don’t know.”

Jaemin sighed and raised the glass of water sitting on the coffee table in front of him. “Cheers to a chaotic senior year.”

“Cheers to that,” Renjun said, lifting his own water glass. 

“Now get out of my house. It’s late.”

“Right.”

He tried to forget about it, he really did. But as he ventured out into the starry night, tracing a path back home, all he could think about was Jeno. 

* * *

  
Whispers drifted through the halls the next day, murmurs of the new students floating through the air. Everywhere Jaemin went, the whispers followed. He tried to tune them out as he made his way to Calculus. The buzzing conversation was starting to get annoying. 

“Hey, did you hear about Dream?”

“Oh my god!!!”

“I listen to like, ALL of their songs.”

“I’m excited to finally get some new students!”

He bypassed all of them, finally reaching where Renjun and Donghyuck were waiting for him. “Let’s go.”

Math and physics passed by in a blur, the whole class struggling to keep their eyes on the board. Not that Jaemin could blame them. After all, they were getting a certified celebrity at their school. (He wouldn’t say that to Hyuck though; he didn’t want to offend his friend. He did have a few thousand followers on Instagram, but he wasn’t really  _ famous _ , per say.)

By lunch time, anticipation and excitement hung heavy in the air. When Hyuck had been whispering to him details of Dream’s arrival during calc, Jaemin had thought arriving at lunch was for dramatic effect and flashiness, arriving in school during lunch. Later in physics, he learned it was just to keep the influx of students in the morning on time to their classes, and not clogging up the school’s entryway.

It was like the universe was determined to ruin Jaemin’s opinion of Jeno. All Jaemin wanted was to be able to resent Jeno in peace. Was that too much to ask? Apparently it was, since the first thing Jeno did when he entered the cafeteria with his band, was lock eyes with Jaemin. 

It was a blast of nostalgia staring him in the face. Jeno hadn’t really changed at all, looking exactly the same as when… well, when he left. He wore a light blue jean jacket over a white graphic tee, which he paired with light blue jeans and white and gold, expensive sneakers. The look of shock on Jeno’s face was palpable to Jaemin. (Surprise at seeing him here? Regret? Apprehension?) Jeno waved briefly at the students in the cafeteria, following his bandmate, Mark’s lead, before making his way right to Jaemin’s table. 

“Is this seat taken?”

All he got in return was stony silence from Renjun, and a glare from Jaemin. “Yes, it is. Donghyuck-”

“NO,” a voice interrupted Jaemin’s refusal. He sighed, turning around to see a starstruck Hyuck staring at the 5 member band. 

“You can have that seat,” he said, voice going up an octave. “I’ll just sit here,” he moved to the other side of the table.  _ That traitor.  _ Jaemin felt betrayed as Jeno plopped down next to him, the rest of the band scattering around their small table. He tried to convey his anger to Hyuck with his eyes, but the menace just stared at him dazed.  _ Why was he Jaemin’s friend again? _ He truly wondered sometimes.

“Hi, I’m Donghyuck!” Announced the cheery brunette, glancing at everyone around the table. Everyone waved a polite hello, but was still too frozen in shock to so much else. 

“You aren’t welcome here,” Jaemin finally sniped at Jeno, after a few moments of silence. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Chenle and Jisung, two Juniors, stop talking. Mark stopped staring at Hyuck to glance at him, and both Renjun and Jeno freezing. 

Jeno collected himself the fastest. “Why not?”

“You  _ know _ why. Leave.” Ok,  _ maybe _ he was being a  _ little _ rude, but it was justified! Kind of. Or maybe Jaemin was just being petty. Oh well, he could live with being called petty if he got to spite Jeno. 

“I think I’m free to sit wherever I want.”

“No. You’re free to sit anywhere but here. Just leave, and don’t bother me for the rest of the year. You have no idea, Jeno. No idea how much it fucking  _ hurt. _ ” Jaemin paused to breathe. “So please, just… go.” He didn’t want to break down quietly here, not when he knew that most of the cafeteria was secretly watching them. 

Jeno sighed. “Fine, I’ll go for now. But we’re going to have to talk about this eventually.” He got up, stretching his arms. “It was nice seeing you again, Injunnie. And nice meeting you, Donghyuck. He departed towards another table, sliding onto an empty seat to converse with a group of fawning girls. “Injunnie…” Yangyang sighed out. 

Renjun seemed caught between two options, not sure what to do. Unlike Jaemin and Jeno, they had parted on good terms, despite not having kept in touch. 

“Yangyang…” he seemed to reach a decision. “We should catch up later,” he attempted a smile. “But for now, I think it’s best you leave.”

Yangyang nodded in resignment, beckoning a reluctant Mark and indifferent Jisung and Chenle to follow him. Only once they all left, did Donghyuck fix glares on Jaemin and Renjun. “Care to explain?”

**Author's Note:**

> Please leave a kudos and comment if you enjoyed, and please check out my other NCT chat crack fic: Neocity! :)


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